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The earth didn’t give way easily as Mayor Brad Miller drove his shovel into the sod on Saturday.
A fitting reminder that even as the Village of Richmound, Sask., turns the page on years marked by the presence of the Kingdom of Canada cult, some ground takes time to reclaim.
“Let’s stay together and grow together,” Miller said while symbolically breaking ground on the proposed site for a community greenhouse, in the shadow of the old school building that once housed Romana Didulo and her followers.
The village of 120 people, about 365 kilometres west of Regina, held a street party on Saturday to mark a new era and fundraise for the project.
“It feels really good,” said Arlene Miller, an event organizer and wife of the mayor. “We had so many sleepless nights. I just want to forget all that now and just move forward.”
Miller gathered local kids together during the party to plant seeds in a cup they could take home.
“We kind of wanted to tie it into the greenhouse,” she said. “Let’s plant some new beginnings.”
The national spotlight turned to Richmound on Sept. 15, 2023, when Didulo and some devotees moved into the former school building. She is known as a QAnon conspiracy theorist who started to amass a following during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two years of conflict followed as the group issued threats of public execution towards council members and other residents.
RCMP raided the compound on Sept. 3, 2025, after receiving a report that one of its occupants had a firearm. The Saskatchewan Health Authority then declared the building “unfit for human habitation” and issued a public health order forcing the eviction of its occupants.
Didulo was charged with failing to comply with an undertaking and intimidating a justice system participant. The crown then stayed her charges this March.
Romana Didulo, who calls herself the Queen of the Kingdom of Canada, began a livestream to the platform Telegram Wednesday morning as RCMP descended on her headquarters in Richmound, Sask., where she has been staying with her followers for two years.
“There was times where I wanted to step down,” Mayor Miller said. “I’d lay in bed thinking what did I do wrong or what can I do better? But it just took time and it took people to open their eyes and see what was really going on.”
He pointed to Saturday’s street party and the new greenhouse as opportunities to change their narrative.
“A lot of new people came in the last two years,” Miller said. “If we plant that seed… we can grow as a community and put our differences aside and grow together.”
Scott Earl is one of those new residents.
“I actually moved in a week before the queen moved into the school,” Earl said. “I had to put a sign on my lawn saying new to town, not a cult member.”
Earl said he never considered packing up and leaving when things got tough.
“I was raised by parents who had a small little chicken farm that you don’t give up,” he said. “Just keep moving forward.”
Earl chairs the Grow Together Initiative, planning an all-season geodesic dome greenhouse to help tackle food instability in the region.
“It would produce enough produce for us to last over the winter time and also serve as a warm space,” he said. “Then we start to develop other ideas like… a market, food dehydration, an area to grow some root vegetables. The idea is to actually be a more or less a rural food bank where we can grow produce.”
While Richmound has a corner store, their nearest access to a grocery store with fresh produce is a 50 minute drive to Leader, Sask.
“It’d be nice to be able to have the ability to take care of ourselves,” Earl said.
He estimated the initiative has raised approximately $55,000. They need $100,000 to order the greenhouse and $150,000 to outfit it with everything they’ve planned.
The proposed site for the greenhouse is only a few hundred metres away from the now vacant school. It is still owned by Ricky Manz, the man who invited Didulo to Richmound and is still facing charges stemming from the group’s time in the village.
The building – painted in the signature purple associated with the cult – sits in disrepair, with boarded up windows and items littered throughout the unkept yard.
“It’s overgrown with weeds,” Miller said. “We’ll see. I guess it’s all about taxes, right? If you don’t pay your taxes, that’s it. There’s a policy procedure you’ve got to follow. It’s tough to say.”
For now, the weed-filled property serves as a last reminder of an era that Richmound is looking to put behind them, as they plant the seeds of their next chapter.
WATCH | The Queen Comes to Town:
